I'm leaving these points here as advice for any US folks, since recent passport matters have screwed me out of travel plans that should not have been the *least* bit complicated.
1) If you've already had SRS, don't let the passport people issue you some 1-year passport out of prejudice. Demand a 10-year. If I'd just been issued a 10-year, as I rightly should have, I would have had no issues at all.
2) If these losers do in fact give you a 1-year, absolutely renew it (TO A 10 YEAR) before that year expires.
3) If you don't, and you then try to renew it (passport website instructions will lead you to believe you're doing exactly what you should) they will harass you over inconsistencies in gender marker, demanding to see a surgeon's letter even when you could give them birth certificate, state ID, social security, etc. Real slap in the face for long-transitioned people.
4) Regarding the above, they will tell you that the ACTUAL issue is that you did not renew your passport in time and therefore need to apply for a *new* passport. Which, despite the fact that *their office* still has the documents identifying your correct gender AND the fact that you sent them the passport that *they issued you* with the correct gender, they're still going to demand a surgeon's letter as if they're blind Alzheimer's patients.
5) You'd better give yourself 2-3x the absolute minimum amount of time you need to accommodate for them holding onto your ->-bleeped-<- for 2-3 weeks before even letting you know anything's wrong (this is even if you choose "expedited", by the way)
6) The CSRs at the US office are among the most useless, lie-to-your-face people I've ever had the displeasure of interacting with. If you need actual help, don't tolerate these clowns. Call and ask for a supervisor (note: actual supervisors will identify themselves as such when they greet you! If they don't, it's probably another CSR!)
7) If you have issues, you want to talk to people at the national agency, not the call center. Tell a supervisor at the call center to give the folks at the national agency times when to call you, but don't expect them to actually honor that. Glue your phone to your body - if their first call misses you, they tend to just call like 10 minutes later then give up, and then you need to go through the whole process of telling someone to give them a message to call you again... (you can't call the people you actually need directly.)
8 ) Take notes on who you talked to, when, and what you need to send to which address. It can get really painfully confusing. These people will see one thread loose and try to tell you your whole outfit is wrong.
If I think of any other points I'll add them here.
